


Worthy Man coda 2

by jesseofthenorth



Series: A Worthy Man [3]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 16:22:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3495011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesseofthenorth/pseuds/jesseofthenorth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future fic coda written by anon request for original fic<br/>Niall wants Clint to quit being an Avenger</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worthy Man coda 2

**Author's Note:**

> So I have a few bits and bobs related to the original story kicking around my head. This is a far in the future fic set several years after Clint becomes an Avenger (because you knew he was gonna eventually)

"God dammit dad! Would you just listen!? No one is making any kind of commentary about your competency! I just don't want you to get fucking _killed!_ Okay? Jesus!"

"Why are you suddenly worried about me getting killed? I have been on this job for almost 20 years! I did it for a few years before you came! Now suddenly you're worried about me getting killed? Right after I get re-certified? What the fuck Niall? Why now, all of a sudden" Clint can feel himself getting more and more pissed off the more he talks about Niall's sudden change of heart.

"IT'S NOT SUDDEN! I worried about you _all the fucking time_ when you went back! I just never said anything because I knew how much it meant to you!" Niall snaps his mouth shut, Clint can see he said more than he meant to. It stops Clint cold, anger evaporated. Something is up.

"Niall? What's going on, buddy?" Clint sits down beside his son. "What's wrong?"

Niall looks at his father and Clint can see tears in his son's eyes.

"Nothing's wrong Dad." He wipes at his eyes. "It's just. Jade. Jade is pregnant. And. I-"

Clint feels like the world's biggest asshole for getting this all wrong.

" I'm gonna be a Dad! And I. I just want you to be around for that. Except, Avengering right? And, shit happens and what if the next time you fall you don't get up again? I don't want to have only stories about their grandad to tell my kid. I want them to have YOU."

Well fuck.

*

"I think I need to quit" Clint tells Phil with no lead up what so ever. He just walks into Phil's office plops down in a chair and drops a bomb.

Phil's head snaps up and blinks at Clint "Okay?" he knows if he waits Clint will tell him the rest.

"It's Niall. And Jade. Mostly- fuck." Clint drops his head in his hands and pulls at his hair. Phil puts down the pen he's holding and goes to sit beside Clint.

"Did you know?" Clint asks him.

"Did I know what?" Phil asks quietly, a little confused.

"That Niall didn't want me to become an Avenger. That he was scared? All the time!"

Phil sighs " It wasn't all the time."

"So you knew!" he accuses

"Did you not?" Phil asks.

"I-" stops and thinks how to say what he knows. "I sorta did? I just. I knew he wasn't happy about it, in the beginning. But I thought it was just." he makes a frustrated noise "He stopped being pissed off so I thought it was better!"

"Clint." Phil takes his hand, pulls it away from the hair Clint keeps trying to rip out by the roots "He stopped letting his fear hold you back from doing what you loved. Helping people, making the world better. He never stopped be afraid of losing you. Soldiers and heroes, that's the price their families pay."

"Fuck" Clint whispers. " I need to-. I need to tell him I'm sorry. I need to retire from the field."

"Okay. when?"

"Now. right now."

"Why so fast?"

"Because he never asks for anything. Not really, and he asked me for this. I- have you talked to him lately? Like in the last day or two?"

"No why?"

"He has some news. I don't know if he wanted to tell you himself. I don't think he really meant to tell me the way he did. I don't- I'm not sure what to do here."

"Well." Phil tells him "They are coming over for dinner tonight. Why don't you wait until then? We'll discuss whatever this is after. okay?"

 

*

"Holy crap" Phil says dropping down on the sofa beside Clint, right after the front door closes behind Niall and radiant wife. "A kid." He sounds floored.

"Yeah" Clint agrees. "We're gonna be grandparents" he grins at Phil.

"Um" Phil says.  
Clint can't quite figure out the look on Phil's face. Uncertainty maybe? Definitely some sadness "Phil? What's wrong?"

"What? Wrong? Nothing's wrong. It's just- I didnt't think I would ever get to have that." Phil says. he looks kind of stunned.

"Get to have what, exactly?"

"The grandparent thing. I could be the kid's grandparent?"

"Why wouldn't you be the kid's grandfather? You are Niall's Dad for fucks sake. Doesn't one usually follow the other?"

Phil just stares at him opening and closing his mouth for several moments, but doesn't actually say anything.

"Phil?"

"Well I mean he's. - -. I love him right? I have forever. And I-. YOU are his Dad. I've been here all this time, right? But I'm not- I LOVE him okay? After a certain point I never thought I'd get to have kids and then you found Niall and brought him home and then we started dating. And then we moved in together. But he was -is - was still your kid and I thought-"

Jesus Christ. Clint has the dumbest smart boyfriend in the world. "Phil. He has been calling you Pops since he was ten. You signed all his report cards. You bought him his first box of condoms. Of course you get to be his kids grandfather. You _are_ the kid's grandfather. You get that right? I didn't massively fuck up with you too did I? Didn't like cut you out of shit with my kid without realizing it?" Clint is starting to get worried about how much he might have missed.

Until Phil laughs and pulls him over for a kiss "No, idiot. You didn't, not at all. I was just completely floored. I needed to take a moment and acknowledge how grateful I am for everything. I'm still a bit - well- overwhelmed, actually. We are going to have a grandkid!" The glee in Phil's voice is enough to dispel any apprehension Clint was feeling a moment ago.

They sit there on the sofa for a while, close leaning on each other staring at the news and marvelling at the shift in their world.

"So are you really going to retire from the field?" Phil asks him.

Clint sighs "Yeah. That kid never asks me for anything. I am doing this. Besides the kid's right. We all know if I keep going, one day I am going to fall and not get up again." He stares blankly at the TV before continuing "I never wanted that to be the way things ended. I feel like shit that he had to ask me to quit to get what he needed. I don't really know how to make it up to him."

Phil squeezes the back of Clint's neck gently "Talk to him. I think things aren't as messed up as what you are imagining. Just talk to him. Okay?" Phil gives him a gentle shake to reinforce what he's saying.

"Yeah. Okay" Clint leans into him and soaks up some more of the support Phil is always offering.

*

The day he tells Cap he's done Clint meets Niall for coffee after, just the two of them.

"So I did it" Clint tells him.

"Did what?" Niall asks distracted by how good his latte tastes.

"Resigned." Clint tells him.

"What?" Niall jerks his head up, slopping a little of his drink over the edge of the mug in his hurry.

"From the Avengers. I stepped down. Captain America shook my hand and thanked me for my service. Can't get much better than that" he grinned.

"But." Niall just stared "I. I didn't mean like immediately! Jeez Dad!"

"Hey dude, calm down. It's okay."

"I. I just thought you might take a step back or ease your way out of it or something. I didn't mean you had to quit the next day!"

"Niall. It's cool. Dude, really. I do not mind. I mean you were kinda… totally right. And you never ask me for shit. So. You asked me for something I was going to do anyway at some point. It's not like I was going to still be an Avenger when I'm ninety. Besides, as soon as I said the word retirement out loud? I got an offer I couldn't refuse."

Niall looks at his father expectantly waiting for that news.

"I get to go back to teaching at SHIELD. Entry level recruits. And you know what else I am going to do?"

Niall has no idea.

"I am going to ask my super hot boyfriend to marry me."

Niall laughs right at him "It's about time dumbass!"


End file.
